“The Fearful and Unbelieving”, Courage And Compromise In The Modern Era

In a strange sort of way this commentary is written to me. It is a self-inspection of some issues and some deep soul-searching that I have engaged in recently.

Introspection is healthy therapy. You will find that if you do a serious self-examination of your deepest thoughts much of what you say you believe are simply surface level thoughts. If you were to go all the way down the rabbit hole of thought you will find lying at the very bottom of your straw house is a foundation built on compromise.

Very few of us actually act upon what we claim to believe. Believing and acting are not the same thing, or as I used to tell those who played football for me, talk is cheap. When you dig down deep you will truly find both who and what you serve. Put up or shut up, boys.

Well, it looks to me like we are rapidly approaching the bewitching hour. The moment of truth is at our door.

“What chue talking about Willis?” Me. I’m talking about me… and you… if you are honest enough to admit it. At the very bottom of everything I say lies a demon known as cowardice. Silence isn’t golden, it’s yellow. So much of what we do, or don’t do, is shaped by fear.

The Scriptures teach “that to he who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
Cowardice makes sinners of us all. Is there anything less Christ-like than a cowardly Christian?

In fact, if you were to read the Bible with an open heart you will find that Christ looks very harshly upon His cowardly children. Perhaps that is why the admonition to “FEAR NOT” appears nearly 100 times in the Bible. One mention should have been enough.

But what if “Fear Not” was a commandment and not just a suggestion? What if, as the John taught us, “Perfect love casteth out fear?” What if Revelation 21:8 was true and “The fearful and unbelieving” were the first ones who cast into the Lake of Fire?

What are you afraid of? What am I afraid of? Why is it that my actions and words don’t match? Why is it the things that I claim are important to me cause such little passion in my life? Why is there so little works following my faith? Why am I so silent regarding the things that I claim are non-negotiable with me? Or worse yet…why am I so silent regarding the things that matter to God?

Am I fearful and unbelieving? Does fear throw water on what I claim to believe? Do I love myself too much to stand up for the things that matter to God? We are exhorted in the Scriptures that BELIEVERS “overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.”

Do I love myself too much? Do you? Is that way the Gospel seems to be stuck in neutral in America today? Are we ashamed of it? Are we fearful of the consequences of speaking out? Jesus said “greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

I think we love ourselves too much. I think that is why evil has the American church stuck in the swamp.

Can we get honest with each other Christian? Would you mind if I invited you into the discussions I have with my own conscience? Far be it from me to tell you how to best soothe your own soul but here are a few serious questions I find asking myself on a regular basis.

If I was TRULY a Disciple of Christ would I…

Sit silently on the sidelines while they murdered unborn children? Would I refuse to storm into an abortion clinic and rescue those on the verge of death simply because I might go to jail?

Would I continue to pay taxes to a wicked government that uses my tax dollars to kill children, indoctrinate them into deviant sexual lifestyles, that teaches them that Almighty God is nothing more than a myth, that they evolved from monkeys, and that the public mention of Jesus was illegal? If I financially support such lies am I not an accessory to their destruction?

Would a servant of the Most High permit a secular government to destroy the very institution of marriage? How can I sit silently on the sidelines while sexual deviancy is promoted and applauded to the point that birth certificates are being altered to “no gender” status? Why would I pay even one dollar to such an evil government knowing that the end result is the all out destruction of God and His Word?

The list and the examples could go on, but in my not-so-humble opinion the reason for our failure to fight back is cowardice. We say we believe one way but our actions show a different picture.

One of my friends once told me that the problem in America wasn’t that Christians are afraid to die for their faith, but that they didn’t want to do anything that might cause them to lose their stuff. That is the reason that no one ever fights back.

You wanna know what really scares me? What if one day I stand before the Lord and He asks me why I PERSONALLY didn’t do anything to fight against the darkness sweeping over the land. I wonder how my weak response will echo in the corridors of the doomed and the damned.

“I wanted to stand up for you Lord but I was afraid I might lose my job, or be sued and lose my
house, or be thrown in jail for violating the law?”

“Violating WHO’S law” I hear His voice reverberate. “Don’t you know the command was to obey God rather than man?”

Babies are dying. The minds of children are being destroyed with barely a peep from the church. Why?

Because we are fearful and unbelieving. God is watching. It is time to put up or shut up boys. Talk is cheap. Remember, the cowards go first.

Dave Daubenmire is a veteran 35 year high school football coach who was spurred to action when attacked and sued by the ACLU in the late 1990s for praying with his high school football team. After a two year battle for his 1st amendment rights, the ACLU relented and offered coach an out of court settlement.

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